What makes an ethnography “enactive”? Examining the boundaries between mainstream participant observation and carnal sociology

• In Event: 20209 - Flesh and Blood Sociology: Ethnographic Practice Today

Abstract

Since Wacquant’s (2015) call for a sociology of flesh and blood (i.e. carnal sociology), a growing number of scholars are taking up “enactive ethnography”: an immersive approach to fieldwork in which one performs the phenomenon being studied. However, in examining this body of work, significant fuzziness can be found around how these authors understand the defining features of the approach. Thus, this paper offers a methodological exploration of makes an ethnography "enactive". Specifically, it seeks to clarify the boundaries between participant observation and enactive ethnography by: 1) comparing ethnographies identified as being “enactive” to Wacquant’s own account of enactive ethnography, as well as the methodological approaches in ethnographies Wacquant cites as exemplifying enactive ethnographic methods; 2) engaging with feminist critiques of enactive ethnography, to further identify distinguishing features of the approach in relation to feminist work on embodiment, emotion and standpoint theory, and; 3) offering methodological reflections on what it means to “do” enactive ethnography based on the author's own work as a Disabled “fighting scholar” studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In doing so, this paper aims to flesh out enactive ethnography's benefits and distinguishing features, and offer practical considerations on the challenges of “doing” enactive ethnography both in the field and as an ethnographic writing practice.

Author

• Brigid E. K. Burke, University of Ottawa